Merchandise rack



Dec. 31, 1957 H. J. HILL MERCHANDISE RACK Fi led May '7, 1953 INVENTOA.

- HARVEY JLH/LL 7 BY HIS H'iTORNEYd. Ha RR/S, K/ECH, FOSTER a HnRR/s MERCHANDISE RACK Harvey J. Hill, Monterey Park, .Calif., assignor to Roberts Manufacturing Co., a corporation of California pp m May 7, 1953, Serial No. 353,640

6 Claims. (Cl. 211-44) This invention relates to the art of merchandise racks and, more particularly, to a merchandise rack adapted to support a roll of carpeting or other similar material.

It is conventional in the art to provide a merchandise rack for rolls of carpeting or other material, having a pair of vertical standards rigidly interconnected and provided with horizontal crossbars upon each of which is carried a rectangular plate adapted to support the roll of carpeting or other material. Usually, such plates are made of rigid material which is resistant to bending, and since a large roll of carpeting supported only at two spaced points between its ends has a tendency to sag, the ends of the plates tend to cut into or crush the carpeting material and particularly the pile thereof. It is a primary object of this invention to provide a merchandise rack having supporting plate members particularly designed to avoid crushing or damage to the pile of carpeting or other material. I accomplish the foregoing object by making each of the supporting plate members of a plurality of rectangular resilient plates superimposed one upon the other, each of which is slightly longer than the plate member directly therebeneath so that the ends of each plate member overhang the ends of each plate member therebeneath, and thus provide a construction which is relatively flexible at its ends and which will readily bend to conform to the sag, if any, of the roll of carpeting or other material superimposed thereon.

In the drawings, which are for the purpose of illustration only,

Figure l is a side elevational view of the merchandise rack of my invention,

Rigure 2 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 22 of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is an enlarged elevational view of one of the supporting plate members of the invention when unloaded, and

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 but showing the plate member loaded by a roll of carpeting thereon.

Referring to the drawing, I show a merchandise rack which includes a pair of identical vertical standards 11 and 12 rigidly joined together by a base bar 13 and a top bar 14, each of the standards having rigidly secured thereto a plurality of horizontal crossbars 16, each of the crossbars on one standard being aligned with a similar crossbar on the other standard. Each of the vertical standards 11 and 12 is also preferably provided with a transverse base bar 17 provided with conventional roll ers or casters 18 to permit the rack 10 to be rolled about as desired. On each of the crossbars 16 is a pair of supporting means 19 and 20. Since the supporting means 19 and 20 are identical in construction, only the supporting means 19 Will be described.

The supporting means 19 includes three superimposed plate members 22, 23, and 24 which are rigidly secured at their center lines to a crossbar 16 by any suitable means such as bolts 25, although any number of tiers of such plate members may be employed as desired. The plate members 22, 23, and 24 preferably have substanatent O ice tially the same width, but each plate member has a length substantially less than the length of the plate member next thereabove. The plate members 22, 23, and 24 are not secured together other than by the 'bolts 25,, permitting relative movement between the plate members adjacent the ends thereof, to permit flexure.

As shown in Figure 3, when assembled and before being loaded the plate members are substantially horizontal, but, as shown in Figure 4, when any heavy roll of carpeting or other similar material is placed upon the supporting means 19, any sag thereof over the ends of the supporting means causes the relatively thin plate members 22, 23, and 24 to flex downwardly to conform to the sag of the roll of carpeting. This is important as it reduces to a minimum any tendency of the supporting means to crush or tear the pile of the carpeting.

Although the plate members 22, 23, and 24 may be formed of any suitable material, such as metal, I prefer to form the same of relatively thin ply-wood, such as, for example, a plywood having a thinness of approximately one-quarter inch for a plate member approximately 30 inches by 36 inches in size.

Although I have shown and described the preferred form of invention, it will be understood that ;I do not intend to :be limited to the specific details of construction illustrated and described, but desire to be afiorded the full scope of the following claims.

I claim as my invention:

:1. A merchandise rack, including: a pair of vertical standards; means rigidly interconnecting said standards; a horizontal transverse crossbar on each of said standards, said crossbars being in horizontal alignment; and supporting means on each of said crossbars and supported thereby, each of said supporting means including a plurality of resilient rectangular plate members superimposed one upon the other, the uppermost of such plate members being substantially longer than the plate member next therebeneath so that the ends of said uppermost plate member substantially overhand the ends of the plate member next therebeneath, each of said supporting means being adapted to support a portion of a roll of carpet.

2. A merchandise rack, including: a pair of vertical standards; means rigidly interconnecting said standards; a horizontal transverse crossbar on each of said standards, said crossbars being in horizontal alignment; and supporting means on each of said crossbars and supported thereby, each of said supporting means including three resilient rectangular plate members superimposed one upon the other, said plate members having substantially the same width and each of said plate members being substantially longer than the plate member directly therebeneath so that both of its ends overhang the ends of such plate member directly therebeneath, each of said supporting means being adapted to support a portion of a roll of carpet.

3. A merchandise rack, including: a pair of vertical standards; means rigidly interconnecting said standards; a horizontal transverse crossbar on each of said standards, said crossbars being in horizontal alignment; supporting means on each of said crossbars and supported thereby, each of said supporting means including a plurality of resilient rectangular plate members superimposed one upon the other, the uppermost of such plate members being substantially longer than the plate member next therebeneath so that the ends of said uppermost plate member substantially overhang the ends of the plate member next therebeneath, each of said supporting means being adapted to support a portion of a roll of carpet; and roller means supporting said standards.

4. A merchandise rack, including: a pair of vertical standards; means rigidly interconnecting said standards; a horizontal transverse crossbar on each of said stand- Q ards, said crossbars being in horizontal alignment; a first pair of supporting means on one of said crossbars, one of said supporting means of said first pair being on one side of one of said standards and the other being on the other side of said one of said standards; a second pair of such supporting means on the other of said crossbars, one of said supporting means of said second pair being on one side of the other of said standards and the other being on the other side of the other of said standards, each of said supporting means including a plurality of resilient rectangular plate members superimposed one upon the other, the uppermost of such plate members being substantially longer than the plate member next therebeneath so that the ends of said uppermost plate member substantially overhang the ends of the plate member next therebeneath, each of said supporting means being adapted to support a portion of a roll of carpet.

5. A merchandise rack, including: a pair of vertical standards; means rigidly interconnecting said standards; a horizontal transverse crossbar on each of said standards, said crossbars being in horizontal alignment; a first pair of supporting means on one of said crossbars, one of said supporting means of said first pair being on one side of one of said standards and the other being on the other side of said one of said standards; a second pair of such supporting means on the other of said crossbars, one of said supporting means of said second pair being on one side of the other of said standards and the other being on the other side of the other of said standards, each of said supporting means including a plurality of resilient rectangular plate members superimposed one upon the other, the uppermost of such plate members being substantially longer tha nthe plate member next therebeneath so that the ends of said uppermost plate member substantially overhang the ends of the plate member next d therebeneath, each of said supporting means being adapted to support a portion of a roll of carpet; and roller means supporting said standards.

6. A merchandise rack, including: a pair of vertical standards; means rigidly interconnecting said standards; a horizontal transverse crossbar on each of said standards, said crossbars being in horizontal alignment; and supporting means on each of said crossbars and supported thereby, each of said supporting means including a plurality of resilient rectangular plate members superimposed one upon the other, the uppermost of such plate members being substantially longer than the plate memher next therebeneath so that the ends of said uppermost plate member substantially overhang the ends of the plate member next therebeneath, each of said supporting means on one of said crossbars being in horizontal alignment with a similar supporting means on a crossbar of the other standard, each of said supporting means being disposed relative to its crossbar so as to be flexible at right angles to its said crossbar, each of said supporting means being adapted to support a portion of a roll of carpet.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNiTED STATES PATENTS 364,658 Lee June 14, 1887 506,020 Schriver Oct. 3, 1893 520,540 Parsons May 29, 1894 725,851 Kopp Apr. 21, 1903 924,386 Shel: June 8, 1909 1,114,948 Walker Oct. 27, 1914 2,005,882 Arnold June 25, 1935 2,116,026 Heuman May 3, 1938 2,306,540 Bales Dec. 29, 1942 2,620,072 Searcy Dec. 2, 1952 

